engleski

Rights of Older People and Their Experience of Dignity in The City of Zagreb

The authors of this paper present the two studies conducted by the Foundation Zajednički put, published in the period from 2012 to 2016, and compare the results with international studies into the same area. The results of the quantitative study Rights of the Elderly in the City of Zagreb showed that the category in which the participants reported the greatest occurrence of rights violation is the category of safety and personal dignity: every fifth participant was cursed at, insulted or ridiculed, one in seven was mugged, and one in eight was physically threatened to. However, the most worrying finding is not the rights that are violated or the number of the elderly whose rights are denied, but the general passivity of the institutions when a senior citizen seeks protection: the results indicate that the elderly whose rights are violated extremely rarely report the discrimination because, as it has been the case, their report usually has no effect whatsoever. The results of the qualitative study Narratives of Dignity in Old Age have shown that the elderly are most discriminated against in health institutions, public spaces (squares, streets, public transportation) and in public and private institutions. The discrimination most often includes inappropriate treatment and improper communication, ignoring, objectivization, ridicule, insults, fraud, physical threat and mugging. Although older people have equal rights and liberties as every other citizen, the studies conducted at the Foundation Zajednički put have shown that they, compared to the rest of the population, find themselves in an unequal position when it comes to the enjoyment of their rights. The enjoyment of rights presupposes creating proper conditions for an effective implementation of international standards, which in return necessarily includes educating and informing the individual about the rights belonging to them, as well as about the ways they can enjoy and protect them.

the elderly, human rights, dignity, ageism

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